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Summary

In their best start in 11 years, Hertha Berlin gained a well-deserved point on Friday night against Borussia Dortmund.

Stalwart midfielder Per Ciljan Skjelbred's workmanlike performance in midfield was the embodiment of Hertha's ruthless approach to thwarting BVB. Speaking after the game the Norway international reflected on the 90 minutes at the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK and his team's success so far, which he attributes to the teamwork within the club, both on the pitch and in training...

bundesliga.com: Per Ciljan Skjelbred, you were ahead against Dortmund. Is it frustrating not to win the game?

Per Ciljan Skjelbred: A little bit. To concede the penalty with 12 minutes of the game left in the second half, I actually thought 1-1 would be ok, but then I got a new hope that we could do it. Of course Dortmund have a lot of qualities offensively. But I thought today we were very good, we stopped the offensive players and we also had some very big counter opportunities. Straight after we conceded, we had one counter where our guy didn’t see our striker, who was totally alone. But that’s football, that’s the way it should be. It should be emotional, it should have a little bit of temperament, good atmosphere and today it was everything.

Following Stocker's goal Hertha were able to keep Dortmund at Bay until the 81st minute

bundesliga.com: The home crowd and the home bench weren't very happy during the second half. What did you make of the tension that stemmed from how Hertha were getting stuck into the tackles?

Skjelbred: I think they are used to just playing football here. They don’t like when you get physical. I will say they seemed as physical as us today; they play dirty and we play dirty, but it’s the way football should be and after the game we should shake hands and be friends and that’s life. Then we go home.

Will the celebrations continue into Matchday 8, when Hertha take on 1. FC Köln?

bundesliga.com: Before you do go home, lets talk about your impressive start to the season. How would you describe it, particularly in light of taking just two points from your last seven games at the end of last season, then going out to Brøndby in the UEFA Europa League?

Skjelbred: It’s hard work, we have a good team with a lot of interesting young players and we have some old players like me. We just love to play football together, we love to come to practice. We know we don’t have Messi or Ronaldo or players like Dortmund have. We have to work together like a team and then we get points.